Anneal vs Hevy: auto-progression versus a great logger

Who each app suits

Hevy

Hevy is a well-liked, polished logger with a social layer and a generous free tier. If you already know what to lift and mostly want a fast, friendly place to record it, Hevy does that well, and at a lower price than Anneal.

Anneal

Anneal is for lifters who want the app to decide the next weight and say why. It runs deterministic progression rules on every program, and a logger comes free alongside. If you only log, the free tier covers it and you may not need Pro at all.

Side by side

	Anneal	Hevy
What it is best at	Progressing a program and explaining each change	Logging workouts, routines and following friends
Raises your weights for you	Yes, every program, generated session and lift you add yourself	Not as a core feature; you choose each next weight
Why a weight changed	Tap any exercise to see the rule that fired	n/a
Daily readiness	HRV, sleep and resting heart rate from Apple Health can scale a day back, never past your plan (reshaping is Pro)	Not offered
Set types	Warm-up sets today; drop, myorep and partial sets in the 2.2 update. Typed sets never change your next weight	Listed on its features page
Sets per muscle each week	Weekly sets for each muscle against a target band; tapping a muscle to see the lifts that counted comes in the 2.2 update	Listed on its features page
Social feed and community	None, by design	Yes
Account	Not required	Required
Free tier	Full logger, every bundled template, one custom program, 90 days of analytics, CSV export	Unlimited workouts with limits on routines, custom exercises and stats history
Paid price (US)	$8.99/month, $59.99/year, $149.99 once	Roughly $23.99/year, with monthly and lifetime options
Bring your history	Imports Hevy CSV exports	n/a

Hevy details are from its App Store listing and third-party pricing guides, read October 2026. Hevy lists several price points, including older ones, so we show an approximate annual figure; check the current price in the App Store. Free-tier limits are as reported by those guides and can change. Hevy's features page (hevyapp.com/features) lists set types and sets per muscle group per week; we did not check how either works in detail. Anneal details are from our own listing.

The honest price picture

Anneal Pro costs more than Hevy Pro: about $59.99 against about $23.99 a year. The extra buys the engine: automatic progression, a rationale for each change, readiness reshaping and an 8-week forecast. If you do not want those, stay with a logger. If you do, try Anneal free for 14 days before deciding.

Moving your Hevy history to Anneal

In Hevy, export your workouts as a CSV from the app's settings (the menu may be labeled Export Data).
In Anneal, open Settings, then Data, then Import CSV, and pick the file.
Review the preview and tap Import. Exercises Anneal does not recognize are kept as custom exercises.

Re-importing the same file is safe: sets already imported are skipped. How the engine uses that history is described in how Anneal decides each weight.

What the 2.2 update adds

Anneal 2.2 is the next App Store update. Until it is live, the items below are not in the version you can download today.

Set types. Long-press Add set to log a drop set, myorep or partial reps. They stay in your history and never change your next weight. Drop and myorep sets count toward your weekly sets for a muscle; partials and warm-ups do not.
Vary reps over time. In the program builder, a lift can go lighter to heavier, heavier to lighter, or undulate.
Weekly sets per muscle. Tap a muscle on the Body map to see this week's total against its target band and the lifts that counted.
A calmer first week. New lifters get a short first workout for their equipment, and the first sessions stay quiet and say Effort instead of RPE.
A clearer paywall. It names what you opened it for and what stays free, and the Lifetime option shows it costs about the same as two and a half years of Yearly.
Apple Watch and accessibility. Readable Watch colors, a complication that now receives its data, a Done button that stays in view on small watches, and larger-text and contrast fixes across the app.
History import. Hevy drop sets now import as drop sets instead of normal sets.

Hevy logs your lifts. Anneal also plans the next one.